Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts

For those who wish to do so, a great deal of your work in ACCOUNTS can be done without ever using the mouse. In many cases, once you learn how to do this, it is much faster than using the mouse.

Many keyboard shortcuts available in the program are obvious, because they are displayed alongside the menu items. Some of them are:

Key

Action

F1

Help Contents and Index

Shift+F1

Help on the main window

Other keyboard shortcuts are standard shortcuts that work in most Windows programs:

Key

Action

Tab

Moves from field to field in a form, for example between fields when editing an account or a transaction

Shift+Tab

Moves backwards between fields in a form

Enter

"Clicks" the default button of a form, usually called Save, OK, etc. You can see which button is the default button because it has a darker border than the other buttons. (On a Register window, Enter saves the current transaction and moves down to the next one.)

ESC

"Clicks" the "cancel" button of a form, usually called Cancel, Close etc.

Alt+DownArrow

Drops down a drop-down list of options in the current field

Ctrl+C

Copy highlighted text in a field to the Windows clipboard

Ctrl+X

Cut highlighted text out of a field and put it in the Windows clipboard

Ctrl+V

Paste text from the Windows clipboard into the field the cursor is in

Entering Amounts

When you are entering amounts, do not enter currency symbols such as the dollar sign, or commas - neither are allowed.

There is no need to enter ".00" after an amount if it has no cents.

Many fields for entering amounts open a Calculator window, if you enter any arithmetic operator (+, -, * or /) in the field, other than a leading minus sign.

Entering Transaction and Other Dates

You can type dates in directly, using the short date format set in the Windows Control Panel's Regional and Language Options. But you can also click on the calendar button to the right of the date, which pops up a calendar that you can use. Details on keystrokes you can use in the calendar are in Using the Popup Calendar to Enter Dates.

Special keys you can use to change the date in a date field itself (not the popup calendar) are:

•T, for Today, sets it to today's date

•+ increases it by one day

•- (minus/dash) decreases it by one day

•M, for Month, goes to the start of the current month, or if you are already on the start of a month, to the start of the previous month

•H, for montH, goes to the end of the current month, or if you are already on the end of a month, to the end of the next month

•Y, for Year, goes to the start of the current year, or if you are already on the start of a year, to the start of the previous year

•R, for yeaR, goes to the end of the current year, or if you are already on the end of a year, to the end of the next year

•F, for Fiscal, goes to the start of the current fiscal year, or if you are already on a fiscal year start, to the start of the previous fiscal year

•L, for fiscaL, goes to the end of the current fiscal year, or if you are already on a fiscal year end, to the end of the next fiscal year

For all of these, it doesn't matter if you use the capital or small letter. And for + and -, it doesn't matter if you use the keys on the normal keyboard area, or the numeric keypad (if your keyboard has one), and whether or not they are shifted. (So for instance since in most keyboards + is the shifted = key, you can press =, without shifting, and it will still work to increase the date by one day.)

Another shortcut you can use is that you can omit the year when you are typing in a date, and it will assume it is for the current calendar year. So for instance if your date format is MM/DD/YYYY, and you want to enter January 31, you can type in just 1/31, and Tab or click out of the field, and it will add the year portion.

When you enter a date field, normally its first component (before the first slash or dash) will become selected (highlighted). Pressing the left or right arrow keys or the forward slash key (/)will cycle through the three components of the date field (month, day and year, in whatever order they are displayed on your computer). That can make it easy to just change one of those components, for instance the day of the month. Once it is highlighted, just type what you want to replace it with - there's no need to delete what is there first.

Entering Fields with Drop-Down Lists

When you are entering drop-down fields in which you can only select values that are on the drop-down list, such as selecting accounts for transactions, you can also use the keyboard. Just press the first letter of the name of the account that you want to select, and it will appear. If there are multiple accounts that start with the same letter, press that letter repeatedly, and it will cycle through the ones that start with that letter. You can also use the up and down arrow keys to move between the entries on the list.

Field for names of accounts actually normally drops their lists down automatically, as soon as you Tab or click into them, though this can be changed with an option on the Maintenance ⇒ Main Optionswindow. (If that option is turned off, you can drop down the list by clicking on it with your mouse, or pressing the keyboard combination Alt+DownArrow.)

For fields which have a drop-down but also allow you to type in values (for example Payees for cheques), the keyboard technique is slightly different. Type in a letter or letters that are the initial part of the value you want to select, for example at least "D" for a payroll cheque to "Dan Cooperstock"- use enough to make it distinct. As you type, the first match from the drop-down list that starts with what you have typed will appear. When you see the desired value, just go on to the next field with Tab.

Using Underlined Letters in Menus and Buttons

If you see an underlined letter in a main menu option (such as File) or a button (such as Save), that means that you can activate that menu or button by holding down Alt and pressing the letter. For example Alt+F for File, Alt+S for Save.

In drop-down menu options, such as the options on the File menu, when there is an underlined letter, just press that letter when the menu has been displayed and the option will be selected. So, for instance to select Open Database from the File menu, press Alt+F for File, then O for Open. (It doesn't have to be a capital "O".)

If you are using Windows Vista or later versions, the default setting may be that you cannot see these underlined letters in menus or buttons unless you press and hold the Alt key. So, one option is to first press Alt so that you can see the underlined letters, then you can use the letter. (They work whether you can see them or not, however.)

If the Windows setting to see underlined letters is not turned on, the installation program will offer to turn it on for you. If you did not do that, the following instructions tell you how to do it yourself.

In Windows Vista or later versions, go to the Start menu, pick Control Panel, then select the Ease of Access Center. From there, click on "Make the keyboard easier to use". From there, check the checkbox beside "Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys". Then click Save. Then you can close the Control Panel window.